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france protests
French Pension Defenders Rally on Eve of High Court Ruling
"They faced off with a large contingent of police deployed outside the building, where hours before the march got underway, other protesters had dumped bags of rubbish," Al Jazeera reported. "The rubbish piles were cleaned up but signaled the start of a new strike by rubbish collectors, timed to begin with the nationwide protest marches. A previous strike last month left the streets of the French capital filled for days with mounds of reeking refuse."
A police officer points a weapon at demonstrators during a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension overhaul in Paris on April 13, 2023.(Photo: Firas Abdullah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
According to CNN, the French government has imposed a ban on protests near the Constitutional Council from Thursday night through Saturday morning.
Last month, Macron advanced his plan to increase the minimum eligible retirement age as well as the number of years one must work to qualify for full benefits through executive order, bypassing the National Assembly once it became clear that his legislative proposal did not have enough support to pass France's lower house. The Senate had already approved the bill, including it in a budget package that expedited the process.
The labor movement has been organizing weekly strikes and peaceful rallies since mid-January, and the president's blatantly anti-democratic move to circumvent a vote only intensified working-class fury. The government, meanwhile, has responded with an increasingly repressive crackdown.
Union leaders, who have implored workers to maintain pressure on the government, called for a 12th round of action on Thursday.
Outside the capital, thousands of people also marched in Marseille, Toulouse, and other cities, including Nantes and Rennes, where a car was set ablaze.
"In Paris, banks and expensive stores secured their front windows with wooden boards but nevertheless, demonstrators broke into the headquarters of the French luxury group LVMH and set off firecrackers," Al Jazeera reported. "The authorities deployed 11,500 police officers, 4,200 of them in Paris alone."
Outside the LVMH building, union leader Fabien Villedieu told CNN affiliate BFMTV that "if Macron wants to find money to finance the pension system, he should come here to find it."
“The mobilization is far from over," General Confederation of Labor leader Sophie Binet said at a trash incineration site south of Paris where hundreds of protesters blocked garbage trucks.
"As long as this reform isn't withdrawn, the mobilization will continue in one form or another," Binet added.
The nine-member Constitutional Council is expected to issue a binding ruling by the end of Friday to "partially approve, fully accept, or reject" Macron's proposed changes, Al Jazeera noted. "On Tuesday and Thursday, left-wing lawmakers visited the council to urge them to completely ban the reform. They have argued that the government's unorthodox method of resorting to a budget law to pass a pension reform, as well as invoking controversial Article 49.3 of the Constitution to bypass a parliament vote, is grounds for it to be thrown out."
Police officers detain a man demonstrating against French President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension overhaul in Paris on April 13, 2023.(Photo: Ameer Alhalbi/Getty Images)
Progressive legislators and union leaders have portrayed the left's struggle against Macron's pension attack as a struggle for democracy in France.
A poll released last week found that reactionary lawmaker Marine Le Pen—leader of the far-right National Rally party, the largest opposition force in Parliament—would beat Macron by a margin of 55% to 45% in a head-to-head rematch. The neoliberal incumbent defeated Le Pen in a runoff election last April, but the openly xenophobic and Islamophobic challenger has gained significant ground since their first matchup in 2017.
"Either trade unions win this, or it will be the far right," Villedieu said last week. "If you sicken people—and that is what's happening—the danger is the arrival of the far right."
Ahead of Thursday's protests, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted: "This reform is unjust and violent. The French have been asking for it to be withdrawn for months, the government has to hear them."
Mass Protests Across France Condemn Macron Attack on Pension System
Macron's government formally presented its draft law last week, the first step in the process of enacting a reform that would force French citizens to work longer to qualify for a full pension.
"Today Is a First Step"
(Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images)
Philippe Martinez, the head of France's General Confederation of Labor union, told reporters that Thursday's strikes are just the beginning of widespread worker unrest if Macron doesn't abandon his attempt to hike the retirement age by 2030.
"If there is no positive response from the government, today is a first step, and there will be a second step," Martinez declared ahead of a march in Paris.
Eric Sellini, the union's coordinator for the French petroleum company TotalEnergies, echoed that sentiment.
"For the moment, we're sticking to our schedule," Sellini said. "Depending on how the situation in the country evolves, and if employees don't want to stop the strike, there could be an extension."
Reuters reported Thursday that the mass protests "led to a substantial fall in electricity output and halted deliveries from refineries operated by TotalEnergies and Esso."
"The CGT union expects that at least 70% of its refinery sector employees at TotalEnergies' four refining sites have joined the strike in opposition to the government plan to raise the retirement age," the outlet noted.
French unions also estimated that around 70% of the country's primary schoolteachers were on strike Thursday.
Broadly Unpopular
(Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images)
A survey conducted earlier this month by the polling firm Elabe found that roughly three-fifths of the French public opposes Macron's proposed pension overhaul, the latest iteration of a plan that the president has repeatedly put forth and subsequently delayed due to furious opposition.
"When he sought reelection last year amid an emboldened far right, Macron sent mixed messages on the issue," The Washington Post reported. "After first announcing that he wanted to raise the minimum retirement age even higher than planned, from 62 to 65, he later backtracked and said that '65 years is not a dogma.'"
"Time for Macron to Withdraw His Reform"
(Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
Opponents of the pension attack—including the leftist leader of the France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon—are pushing Macron to drop the proposal for good as mass protests signal sustained opposition from workers.
"It is time for Macron to withdraw his reform," Mélenchon said Thursday.
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